The Undergraduate Student Government’s new budget shows that you have to spend money to make money.
According to the text of the new bill, USG allocated an additional $156,300 to its budget starting this semester. The purpose of the bill is to optimize spending by the end of the 2025-26 calendar year, so that the USG can “advocate for an increase to the programming fee” next year.
The current Student Programming Fee for undergraduate students is $64 per student, which funds USG’s budget. Graduate students pay between $20 and $40, and those fees go to the Graduate Student Government.
USG Vice President Emma Fallon said they were able to allocate such a large amount due to a “delta,” or difference, between USG’s total funding and how much money USG’s spring budget had initially allocated.
According to Fallon, USG did not allocate the budget increase until recently due to concerns over low support staffing and layoffs last spring. USG had anticipated the possibility of using the delta funds to hire more support.
“In the spring, we were going to decide what we wanted to do for money. We had enough capacity, and then we ended up getting the staff where we needed, and we were told that we can process the money,” Fallon said.
Fallon clarified that the university directly hired staff to support USC Campus Activities and the USG. Therefore, the staff funding did not come from USG’s budget, allowing it to allocate delta funds to other organizations and subcommittees.
USG offered budget increases to organizations that pitched presentations based on needs for future endeavors. USG is now distributing additional funds among many committees and assemblies, such as the Concerts Committee (an increase of $30,000), Trojan Pride Committee (an additional $16,000), and the Performing Arts Committee (an increase of $15,000). The smallest additional allocation, only $700, was granted to the Undocumented Trojan Success Assembly.
“They announced that they had a certain amount of budget available and that if we were interested in receiving some of that budget, we could submit a proposal,” said Bea Ashley Tan, USC Speakers Committee Assistant Director.
Some students are upset about potential increases to the Student Programming Fee, as the total cost to attend USC is already estimated to be over $99,000, according to the USC financial aid website.
“It shouldn’t increase,” said Caroline Vandermeer, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. “A lot of students already struggle with paying tuition… it’s really expensive to go here.”
According to USC Public Relations, information about fees for the next academic year is expected to be posted on the registrar’s website in March.